Innovation Fund of €500 million to attract high quality employers to Ireland

Posted on 19. Jul, 2010 by admin in Aine Brady TD FF, Enterprise

Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD announced a €500 million Innovation Fund during his visit to the United States this week. The fund will be used to attract high quality employers to Ireland and to position Ireland as the best place in Europe for entrepreneurial activity according to local Fianna Fáil TD and Minister of State, Áine Brady.

“This new fund is a key part of the Government’s strategy to position Ireland as a ‘Global Innovation Hub’. “

“The nature of employment in Ireland is changing. The Government is working on building a ‘Smart Economy’ by investing in education, research and development, and entrepreneurialism.”

“The Taoiseach was in the United States selling Ireland and promoting its reputation as an ideal location for multinationals.”

“The new €500 million Innovation Fund-Ireland he announced is specifically tailored to make it more attractive for high quality employers to base themselves here.”

“We need to make Ireland the best place to turn research into products and to start a company. We have already had considerable success in attracting multinationals such as local employer Intel, as well as Google and Facebook and we want to build on that. We want to build on our reputation as a place for research-intensive companies to collaborate with each other.”

“An international public call for ‘expressions of interest’ will be issued soon and the Government will work with interested parties to get more highly skilled jobs created in Ireland.”

“The success of this strategy will not be seen on the ground immediately, but the ultimate aim of creating sustainable jobs for graduates emerging from our colleges and universities. It will be felt in the long term and will help us to avoid the kind of crash of unemployment that we have witnessed in the last couple of years following the bust in the construction industry,” concluded Minister Brady.